16 Sep, 2008 in
Asia-Israel connections, China by Fili An
Tags: china bashing, israel bashing, olympics, shahar zuberi
Tags: china bashing, israel bashing, olympics, shahar zuberi
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A few weeks back, during the Olympic games in Beijing, I wrote about China bashing in some of the Israeli media and my concern over the uprising trend of biased if not ignorant reporting about China. I was attempting to promote more cultural understanding and sensitivity in media reporting and highlight some of the wonder Israel-China cultural interchanges that I frequently write about. But, I had no way of guessing it might become the center of attention and serve as a basis for counter Israel bashing by Chinese. Details later, but first some background.
I gave the following example with three posts about two shows :
- Sino-Phobia : Israeli Media on China and the Chinese
- More Sino Phobia : China Bashing in Israeli media
- Sino-Phobia continued : Israeli media bias against China
Rachel, in Hebrew, also commented on the western and Israeli media bias.
I further commented about Oren Nehari’s remarks about the Chinese Olympics opening ceremony, publishing a letter by a concerned Chinese professor living in Israel :
Rachel, in Hebrew, continued with some commentary and an interesting reply from an Israeli.
Now, Shahar Zuberi, the sole Israeli medalist decided to call the Chinese Olympics hosts “scums” or something like that (I do have a better translation, but it wouldn’t add pride to the incident) and all hell broke loose. The Chinese embassy in Israel canceled an event for the Israeli delegation, apologies were issued, endless articles were written about the stupid young kid who made a national mess out of the greatest moment of his life.
Then, someone picked up on the articles I wrote, and so a few articles followed with a link:
- Shanghaiist - “China-bashing in Israeli media” with some wild disturbing comments.
- The Telegraph explains with “Zubari takes the wind out of China-Israel relations”.
- Jewish Journal connects it all with “Rude Israeli Olympic medalist ticks off Chinese, Peres apologizes”.
- Some Chinese blogs commented about it- 以色列——民族主义者的新靶子 (automatic translation)
Reading the Shanghaiist comments, the Chinese comments on Haaretz video , and the somewhat disturbing Chinese comments on this blog, I feel this is getting out of hand and I’m quite concerned with how this whole thing turned out. Rachel tends to think this is a Chinese overreaction. As for my response – those interested could read my response to the interaction on my blog so far (1, 2, 3, 4, 5). Let’s work together on building bridges between cultures and promoting cultural understanding , rather than destroying them.
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Rachel
| September 17th, 2008 at 4:44 am #
Fili, I’m really tired of the subject, aren’t you? Not sure it does anyone any good keeping this rolling through the net. Passing a certain point it’s just spreading ignorance.
abel | October 17th, 2008 at 7:57 pm #
I could see why one could see this as a negative topic and to continue the subject would in some ways enable the message to continue to spread its ignorance and hatred. Part of this is true, and your fears/concerns have a basis, but the decision will be made by the people to themselves before they go to sleep - even if they wake up and say something different. The ignorance and hatred would only be reality to the person who accepts and wishes to be blind not only by the rumors spread by ignorance but instead by their own willingness to disable themselves. This is why as tragic as racial conflicts can be, reading the views you present on this blog can be positive reinforcement for others. The action and counter reaction back and forth is only the small picture few want you to focus on - is this not what any governance wishes upon of its people? Confusion for the mass, control for the few. Patriotism by fear, Socialism by unity, is power ever not power?
What the Olympic athlete spoke out about - must have reflected some rumored-beliefs in his circles of friends and their beliefs. so could be said of the chinese side and of their circles - if they were the same “race” they would be best friends without a doubt ha ha ha. The extremities in these growing minority of people may seem like the majority but that is only an illusion albeit a growing illusion comprised of mass mob impulses promoted by media and their sponsors namely agendas.
Are we only chinese or only an israeli - labeled and branded as cows and sheep are.